Coherent optical receivers process traffic, in the form of optical signals, received from an optical network. Coherent optical receivers process the optical signals by performing operations on the optical signals, such as polarization beam splitting, analogue-to-digital conversion, demodulation, etc. The processing often causes the optical signals to be deconstructed into constituent components, based on polarization (e.g., transverse electric (TE), transverse magnetic (TM), etc.), real and/or imaginary components (or alternatively, amplitude and phase components) wavelength, etc. The constituent components of the optical signals may be further processed by converting the components into electrical signals, by converting the electrical signals into digital signals, etc. The optical signals and/or electrical signals are typically processed and/or transported, within the coherent optical receiver, using different optical and/or electrical paths, respectively.
Coherent optical receivers may introduce timing skew (e.g., a time difference and/or delay) between components of an optical signal in the optical and/or electrical domain. The timing skew may be introduced as a result of polarization beam splitting, analog-to-digital conversion, etc. The timing skew may also be introduced by unequal optical and/or electrical path lengths used to transport and/or process each of the components of the optical signal.